PREFACE

Many who read the following account of our long land journey will not unnaturally ask: "What was the object of this stupendous voyage, or the reward to be gained by this apparently unnecessary risk of life and endurance of hardships?"

I would reply that my primary purpose was to ascertain the feasibility of constructing a railway to connect the chief cities of France and America, Paris and New York. The European Press was at the time of our departure largely interested in this question, which fact induced the proprietors of the Daily Express of London, the Journal of Paris, and the New York World to contribute towards the expenses of the expedition. Another reason is one with which I fancy most Englishmen will readily sympathise—viz., the feat had never before been performed, and my first attempt to accomplish it in 1896 (with New York as the starting-point) had failed half way on the Siberian shores of Bering Straits.

The invaluable assistance rendered by the United States Government in the despatch of a revenue cutter to our relief on the Siberian coast is duly acknowledged in another portion of this volume, but I would here express my sincere thanks to the "Compagnie Internationale des Wagonslits" for furnishing the expedition with a free pass from Paris to the city of Irkutsk, in Eastern Siberia. In America the "Southern Pacific" and "Wabash" Lines extended the same courtesies, thus enabling us to travel free of cost across the United States, as guests of two of the most luxurious railways in the world.

45 Avenue Kléber, Paris,
October 1903.

CONTENTS

PART I.—EUROPE AND ASIA
I.THROUGH EUROPE. THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY.[15]
II.THE PARIS OF SIBERIA[28]
III.THE GREAT LENA POST-ROAD[41]
IV.THE CITY OF THE YAKUTE[68]
V.THE LAND OF DESOLATION[92]
VI.VERKHOYANSK[109]
VII.THROUGH DARKEST SIBERIA[122]
VIII.AN ARCTIC INFERNO[148]
IX.THE LOWER KOLYMA RIVER[171]
X.A CRUEL COAST[183]
XI.IN THE ARCTIC[203]
XII.AMONG THE TCHUKTCHIS[221]
XIII.AMONG THE TCHUKTCHIS (contd.)[239]
PART II.—AMERICA.
XIV.ACROSS BERING STRAITS—CAPE PRINCE OF WALES[257]
XV.AN ARCTIC CITY[274]
XVI.A RIVER OF GOLD[286]
XVII.DAWSON[304]
XVIII.THE UPPER YUKON AND LEWES RIVERS. THE WHITE PASS RAILWAY[323]
XIX.THE FRANCO-AMERICAN RAILWAY—SKAGWAY—NEW YORK[340]
PART III.—APPENDICES.
I.APPROXIMATE TABLE OF DISTANCES, PARIS TO NEW YORK[361]
II.LIST OF POST STATIONS BETWEEN IRKUTSK AND YAKUTSK[363]
III.REINDEER STATIONS BETWEEN YAKUTSK AND VERKHOYANSK[368]
IV.YAKUTE SETTLEMENTS BETWEEN VERKHOYANSK AND SREDNI-KOLYMSK[370]
V.SETTLEMENTS ON KOLYMA RIVER BETWEEN SREDNI-KOLYMSK AND NIJNI-KOLYMSK[372]
VI.A SHORT GLOSSARY OF YAKUTE WORDS[373]
VII.GLOSSARY OF VARIOUS DIALECTS IN USE AMONGST THE TCHUKTCHIS INHABITING THE COASTS OF N.E. SIBERIA[375]
VIII.METEOROLOGICAL RECORD OF THE DE WINDT EXPEDITION[377]